The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Home automation involves controlling various devices or systems that can be present in homes. Home automation technologies can allow for local and/or remote control of home automation devices. Remote control of devices has an extensive history. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 613,809 to Nikola Tesla, titled “Method of and apparatus for controlling mechanism of moving vessels and vehicle”, issued over 100 years ago on Nov. 8, 1898. The work is cited primarily to establish the long history of the remote control of a machine. The work does not describe an interaction system that receives input signals from a multi-modal interface. Nor does the work describe the conversion of such input signals into queries using a location-specific normalized vocabulary.
The history of home automation has been characterized by an absence of device interface standards, high costs, and awkward user interfaces. Until recently, computer based home automation was largely for hobbyists or the very wealthy. Universal presence of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, labor saving appliances, refrigeration appliances, telecommunication devices, home entertainment systems or components, personal computers and the Internet has caused an increase in the number of mechanical and electrical devices that are required to control these various machines. User interfaces for controlling such devices remain primitive. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,998 to Bilger titled “User interface and method for home automation system”, filed on Oct. 19, 2000, requires a very complex user interface far outside the scope of unsophisticated users. In addition, Bilger fails to describe use of a multi-modal interface and the conversion of input signals into queries using a location specific normalized vocabulary. Ideally, home automation interfaces would allow users to interact with the system in a seamless fashion.
Some effort has been directed to reducing the complexity of home automation interfaces. One example includes using a telephone to control home automation devices as described by U.S. Pat. No. 7,464,035 to Funk et al. titled “Voice control of home automation systems via telephone”, filed Jul. 24, 2002. Another example that focuses on voice control of electrical appliances in a home is U.S. Pat. No. 6,988,070 to Kawasaki et al. titled “Voice control system for operating home electrical appliances”, filed on May 11, 2001. Additional effort has been directed to controlling televisions through a voice operated remote control as described in “VoiSTV: Voice-Enabled Social TV”, Bernard Renger, Harry Chang, Junlan Feng, Luciano Barbosa, AT&T Labs—Research; Ovidiu Dan; Lehigh University. While advantageous in some aspects, none of these cited works entail the conversion of input signals into queries using a location-specific normalized vocabulary.
Further progress is made toward controlling household devices through a conversational user interface as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,576 to Vander Molen titled “Conversational voice command control system for home appliance”, filed on Sep. 6, 1983. Similar work using speech recognition to control networked devices in the home include U.S. Pat. No. 6,535,854 to Buchner et al. titled “Speech recognition control of remotely controllable devices in a home network environment”, filed Oct. 19, 1998. However, these works also fail to describe the conversion of input signals into queries using a location specific normalized vocabulary.
Yet further progress toward natural user interfaces includes use of a virtual assistant as disclosed in U.S. Patent application publication 2007/0043687 to Bodart et. al titled “Virtual assistant”, filed Aug. 19, 2005. While this work claims the use of a natural language interface, it fails to describe the conversion of input signals into queries using a location specific normalized vocabulary.
All publications identified herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
There remains a significant need for improved home automation systems, methods, and technologies. Specifically, most prior efforts entail complex and difficult-to-use or learn user interfaces. Some efforts to simplify and improve user interfaces have focused on the use of speech recognition technologies. Yet all efforts have failed to deliver the benefits of an interaction system that receives input signals from a multi-modal interface. In addition, prior efforts have failed to describe the conversion of such input signals into queries using a location specific normalized vocabulary.
Thus, there is still a need for improved home automation systems, methods, and technologies.